


Aphelion

by paintstroke



Category: Starfighter (Comic)
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Memories, Storms, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 02:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9799031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintstroke/pseuds/paintstroke
Summary: A brief mid-mission interlude.The hazy green light made Cain uneasy, and he kept watching the window as if it were a threat in itself. He wouldn’t let himself flinch when the lightning shot through the rented room, flattening the shadows. He’d tried to keep the blinds shut, but Abel had reached out to open them – again.“I used to love storms on Earth…” Abel whispered.





	

Abel looked up lazily, sated for now, though with him Cain knew it never lasted too long. 

Propped up against the pillows and the wall, Cain had an angled view of Abel, who was currently using his chest as a pillow. Abel’s slender hand still traced slow and lazy designs across Cain’s chest, his dark eyes unfocused, staring out at the unfamiliar skies beyond the window. When Abel’s fingertips traced over Cain’s nipple, Cain felt a familiar pull, a stirring as the sensation shot lower - dulled by their recent activities but still there.

Some fucked-up idea of shore leave this was. No actual planetside to go to, just some other shitty piece of spacejunk in orbit. Different tin can. Bigger beds. Different food. Real windows though, rather than dull lights with blinds. 

The hazy green light made Cain uneasy, and he kept watching the window as if it were a threat in itself. He wouldn’t let himself flinch when the lightning shot through the rented room, flattening the shadows. He’d tried to keep the blinds shut, but Abel had reached out to open them – again.

“I used to love storms on Earth…” Abel whispered. 

Some stupid reflex curled Cain’s lip and he snorted. _Of course_ Abel would love storms. 

“Mars has some pretty big storms too, right?” Abel snuggled himself into Cain’s side, entwining his leg over Cain’s and watched the foul green roiling clouds outside with dreamy eyes. 

Cain’s eye twitched and he tightened his fingers around Abel’s shoulder. Yes, Mars had fucking huge storms. They’d fucking inconvenience the entire fucking planet for months when the damn planet was at its perihelion. _Some pretty big storms._ “Yeah,” he muttered, attempting to smooth his jagged thoughts into a softer reply, hoping his one-word answer would encourage Abel to drop the fucking subject. 

“With lightning?” Abel asked.

_Nope._ Abel just wouldn’t take the hint. Cain rolled his dark eyes to the ceiling. He needed a fucking cigarette. 

“On earth you can count the seconds from the lightning to the thunder to figure out how far away the storms are,” Abel sighed. His hand paused over Cain’s heart. After the next flash of light he tapped along with Cain’s heartbeat. One… two… three… but the station remained silent, either the atmosphere outside not heavy enough to carry the sound or the station was shielded (and Abel probably knew which of those were true, too).

Some shitty part of Cain’s brain informed him there was a script for this. That he should dig out one of the slightly less-crappy memories of his own childhood so they could share fond smiles and memories about where they grew up. A growl threaded its way through his throat. He wasn’t particularly fond of storms. 

He remembered vague terror as a child, and his older sister trying to make a game of the storms. She’d spun fanciful stories while the wireless died and the generators sputtered and failed with the dust. He remembered nausea after the gravity dropped when the terraformers lost power and fell silent, and the way you could throw your own clouds of red dust into the frenzied storm, the initial excitement dulled by months of wearing supplemental oxygen helmets. 

He remembered when the terraforming machinery choked and gasped and they had to stay indoors for weeks because the fucking air was freezing into CO2 crystals at the poles. Through it all, the factories had still churned out their bitter acrid smokeclouds, sending metallic forms and shards up to the orbiting shipyards and stations to aid in the war. The lockdown at the factory ‘for the workers’ safety’. The whispered rumors filling the dark bars, that Earth might eventually just give up the Mars colonies – that it wasn’t worth it to keep terraforming the place if the Colterans might break through the barricade to claim their holy mecca again. 

He remembered the years of manic glee in response to the same storm-driven collapses as a teenager, taking his rifle and his friends and disappearing into the dusk to claim what they deserved. If their planet was fucked they wouldn’t waste their time moaning and drinking like old men. 

He remembered overwhelmingly bitter rage from a jail cell when the dark storms swallowed New Volga in that long year before he was forcibly drafted. He remembered watching through prison bars as the sparse, bare lighting faltered and failed and the sense of hopelessness that only the anger could drive back. 

And yes, there was fucking lightning, but no one fucking cared how far away it was. It always smothered the entire valley in the end, and lingered for months like a bad relationship as Mars skimmed closer to the sun. 

Abel had continued to smooth over Cain’s uneasy silence, ignoring the lack of response and filling the quiet room with his Terran words. Soft pretty words, words from someone who’d always had shelter from the storms, someone who could sit and watch them with a detached artistic appreciation. 

“… I used to love to sit by the lake and watch the storms come in over the water…”

Cain shifted. He craned his neck so that he could scrape his teeth along the shell of Abel’s ear, pressing his nose into the soft waves of pale hair. 

Abel squirmed against the threat of teeth, twisting to look at Cain, nearly nose to nose, stuck on this damned idea of his. “After this deployment… you and me… we could head up to that lakehouse, get a thick blanket and hot tea, just watch the storms and the waves...”

Cain slowly pushed himself up, rolling Abel off of his chest and onto his back and following him relentlessly; pinning him gently to the bed and starting to kiss his neck, his collarbone, not truly ready for more yet but needing to drive these thoughts of storms and waves and water away. 

Abel’s foot gently caressed along the back of his leg as the navigator undulated slightly beneath him, pressing kisses into the top of Cain’s head as his arms and legs pulled Cain ever closer, locking them together. With a moan and a sigh he pulled Cain’s head away from a darkening mark on his shoulder, dark eyes searching Cain’s face softly. 

“You never talk about your memories…” Abel said softly. 

Cain paused, letting Abel hold him a moment. He managed to hold back a scowl - barely. “Not worth sharing,” he muttered dismissively, stubbornly forcing himself forward against the fingers holding fistfuls of his hair, enjoying the momentary taste of pain, letting his own dark-lashed eyes flutter briefly closed as he ground his hips against Abel. 

“Mmm…” Abel moaned, pressing his body into the contact. He drew in a shaky breath, and when his hands softened Cain pushed forward, licked a gentle line along the heartbeat in Abel’s neck, sucking gently under Abel’s ear, the soft skin hot against his mouth. His lower teeth brushed the tender skin and Abel shivered and flinched away, hands forcing their way between his chest and Cain’s, pushing the fighter back. 

Cain resisted for a moment, just enough to let Abel know that it was _his_ choice to pull back a little and look the navigator in the eyes with a defiant stare. Abel’s cheeks were flushed and his eyes bright and he seemed to be loosing the fight with his lust especially with the way his hips rocked against Cain’s. 

“Oh… but…”Abel panted slightly between words, his thought processes visibly dissolving, still trying to protest.

Cain fixed Abel with a smouldering look. The last thing he wanted to think of was the situation he’d been in before this mission, not with what he’d agreed to in order to get back to his hellhole of a planet. 

“I know-” Cain began, desire-roughened words drawn out into a staccato rhythm, punctuated with the actions that slipped between them. He dropped his head lower, nuzzling the slender hand that pushed weakly at his shoulder. “-what-” He licked at Abel’s fingertips. “-I want-“ 

Abel’s lips parted and Cain watched Abel’s heavy-lidded gaze fixate on his lips as he pulled Abel’s finger into his mouth, running his tongue along the tip, tentatively tracing swirls into the sensitive skin. Cain sucked gently and pulled back, letting Abel’s finger rest on his lips as he whispered, “-now,” finishing the thought with a suggestive look. 

Cain _felt_ the tug-of-war within Abel, knew that Abel was quietly struggling to just keep talking, fighting to ignore the way Cain’s hands were tracing hot lines down his body, and Cain felt Abel’s body responding, his protests finally unravelling with the distraction. Cain hid his triumphant smile against the navigator’s neck, knowing that the desires of the moment had won again. 

Well. It was a victory he could share.

Cain bit back a grin hearing Abel whimper as he took his hands away. Cain pulled back a little, drawing himself out of the lithe blond’s arms despite the wordless protests. He reached across the bed to tap the light panel, killing the lights that had been his refuge. The flashes of eerie light were now the only illumination in the room, dancing across their bodies, painting their naked skin chartreuse and grey. He sat above Abel for a moment, watching his lovers’ body in the new light. 

“Don’t know if we’ll ever make it to that lakehouse.” He hoped Abel could see the honesty in those words, at least. Cain leaned forward, bracketing Abel’s head with his forearms and tilting his head so he could brush his lips across Abel’s as he whispered one promise he knew he could keep, “But I’ll enjoy the memory of _this_ storm…”


End file.
